Electronic device

ABSTRACT

An electronic device includes a first body, a second body, a rotating shaft connected with the first body and the second body, at least one driving member, a third body and a flexible display. The first body and the second body rotate relatively to be folded or unfolded via the rotating shaft. The driving member is movably pivoted to the rotating shaft. The third body is movably disposed at the second body, the third body is located on a moving path of the driving member, and the third body and the driving member rotate relative to the first body to be folded or unfolded along with the second body. The flexible display is disposed at the first body and the third body, and the driving member drives the third body to move close to or away from the first body in a rotating folding or unfolding process.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation application of and claims thepriority benefit of a prior application Ser. No. 16/784,248, filed onFeb. 7, 2020, which claims the priority benefit of Taiwan applicationserial no. 108208671, filed on Jul. 3, 2019. The entirety of each of theabove-mentioned patent applications is hereby incorporated by referenceherein and made a part of this specification.

BACKGROUND 1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to an electronic device.

2. Description of Related Art

Along with progress of technologies, flexible display technologies havegradually become mature and are considered to have great developmentpotential. Generally speaking, the flexible display technologies includeelectronic paper, flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and thelike. In addition, for adaptation to requirements of portable electronicdevices on functions of bending, folding, extension and the like ondisplay devices, application of the flexible display technologies to theportable electronic devices is diversified. Moreover, along withapplication of flexible materials to the field of electronic display, anelectronic device may extend for display with a relatively large area,and may also be folded to be conveniently carried according to arequirement.

However, corresponding to extension and folding of a device mechanism ona flexible display device, a flexible display panel on the flexibledisplay device may also have corresponding shape and size changes due toits flexibility, and for example, may be prolonged or shortened relativeto the device mechanism due to different bending (flattening) degrees.Designing still based on a mechanism characteristic of an existingelectronic device may not only bring inconvenience to use but alsodeviate the display panel from an original position to cause thecondition of bulging, wrinkling and even separation from the mechanism.Therefore, there is an urgent need in the industry for improvements in amechanism of an existing flexible display device for adaptation totechnology development trends and market requirements.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure provides an electronic device, of which a bodystructure may correspondingly extend and retract for adaptation to afolded state or an unfolded state of a flexible display.

An electronic device of the present disclosure includes a first body, asecond body, a rotating shaft, at least one driving member, a third bodyand a flexible display. The rotating shaft is connected with the firstbody and the second body, and the first body and the second body rotaterelatively to be folded or unfolded via the rotating shaft. The drivingmember is movably pivoted to the rotating shaft. The third body ismovably disposed at the second body, the third body is located on amoving path of the driving member, and the third body and the drivingmember rotate relative to the first body to be folded or unfolded alongwith the second body. The flexible display is disposed at the first bodyand the third body, and the driving member drives the third body to moveclose to or away from the first body in a rotating folding or unfoldingprocess.

Based on the above, according to the electronic device, the third bodyis movably disposed at the second body and folded or unfolded relativeto the first body along with it, the driving member is movably disposedat the rotating shaft, and meanwhile, the third body is located on themoving path of the driving member, so that, when the third body rotatesrelative to the first body to be folded or unfolded along with thesecond body, the third body may be driven by the driving member to moveaway from or close to the first body to generate relative extension andretraction movement between the first body and the third body. In such amanner, the flexible display disposed at the first body and the thirdbody may smoothly be switched between a folded state and an unfoldedstate along with the extension and retraction movement between thebodies, size differences, generated by state switching, of the flexibledisplay are avoided, and the problems of wrinkling and even separationof the flexible display are further solved.

In order to make the aforementioned features and advantages of thepresent invention comprehensible, embodiments accompanied withaccompanying drawings are described in detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of an electronic device according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram of part of components of the electronicdevice of FIG. 1A.

FIG. 1C is an exploded view of the electronic device of FIG. 1A.

FIG. 1D is a simple local schematic diagram of the electronic device ofFIG. 1B.

FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of the electronic device of FIG. 1A inanother state.

FIG. 2B is the electronic device of FIG. 2A at another viewing angle.

FIG. 2C is an exploded view of the electronic device of FIG. 2A.

FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B are schematic diagrams of state switching of anexisting electronic device.

FIG. 4A is an exploded view of an electronic device according to anotherembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram of part of components of the electronicdevice of FIG. 4A after assembling.

FIG. 4C is the electronic device of FIG. 4B at another viewing angle.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of an electronic device according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram ofpart of components of the electronic device of FIG. 1A. FIG. 1C is anexploded view of the electronic device of FIG. 1A. Meanwhile, acartesian coordinate X-Y-Z is provided to facilitate componentdescription. Referring to FIG. 1A to FIG. 1C, in this embodiment, theelectronic device 100 includes a first body 110, a second body 120, arotating shaft 140, driving members 150A and 150B, a third body 130 anda flexible display 160. The rotating shaft 140 is connected with thefirst body 110 and the second body 120, and the first body 110 and thesecond body 120 rotate relatively to be folded or unfolded via therotating shaft 140. The driving members 150A and 150B are movablypivoted to the rotating shaft 140. The third body 130 is movablydisposed at the second body 120, the third body 130 is located on amoving path of the driving members 150A and 150B, and the third body 130and the driving member 150A and 150B rotate relative to the first body110 to be folded or unfolded along with the second body 120. Theflexible display 160 is disposed at the first body 110 and the thirdbody 130, and the driving members 150A and 150B drive the third body 130to move close to or away from the first body 110 in a rotating foldingor unfolding process.

Specifically, referring to FIG. 1B and FIG. 1C, compared with FIG. 1Aand FIG. 1C, the flexible display 160 is omitted in FIG. 1B to clearlyrecognize other components covered by it. In this embodiment, theelectronic device 100 in FIG. 1A to FIG. 1C is in such a state that thebodies are folded and the flexible display 160 is also folded. The firstbody 110 has a recess 111, and the second body 120, the third body 130and the driving members 150A and 150B are accommodated in the recess 111and covered by the flexible display 160 in a folded state.

The rotating shaft 140 penetrates through the first body 110 and formsdifferent connection relationships with the second body 120 and thedriving members 150A and 150B. For the first body 110 and the secondbody 120, when the rotating shaft 140 is fixedly disposed at the firstbody 110 via a protrusion 142 to disable them to rotate relatively, thesecond body 120 is pivoted to an unthreaded position on the rotatingshaft 140, and thus the second body 120 may form a pivoting relationshipwith the first body 110 via the rotating shaft 140, namely the secondbody 120 may be pivoted relative to the first body 110 about an X axisvia the rotating shaft 140.

For the driving members 150A and 150B, the rotating shaft 140 has afirst external thread 141A and a second external thread 141B, thedriving members 150A and 150B have a first internal thread 151A and asecond internal thread 151B respectively, the first external thread 141Ais adapted to the first internal thread 151A, and the second externalthread 141B is adapted to the second internal thread 151B. Therefore,the driving members 150A and 150B may also move along the X axis at thesame time when the driving members 150A and 150B rotate relative to therotating shaft 140 about the X axis via the thread structures.

Here, a spiral direction of the first external thread 141A is oppositeto a spiral direction of the second external thread 141B, and thus aneffect on the driving members 150A and 150B is that the driving members150A and 150B, when rotating in the same direction, may also move closeto or away from each other.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 1B and FIG. 1C, the third body 130 has aguide portion 131 for adaptation to a track 121 of the second body 120,and thus the third body 130 may move relative to the second body 120along a Y axis. Moreover, as shown in FIG. 1C, the driving members 150Aand 150B have column bodies P5 to P8 correspondingly matched withriveting pieces P1 to P4 to form multiple guide columns respectively,the third body 130 has guide slots R1 to R4, and the multiple guidecolumns formed by the column bodies P5 to P8 and the riveting pieces P1to P4 are movably coupled to the guide slots R1 to R4 respectively.Accordingly, when the driving members 150A and 150B move along the Xaxis, the third body 130 may be driven by matching of the guide columnsand the guide slots R1 to R4 to slide relative to the second body 120.

It is to be noted herein that, although a movement axial direction ofthe third body 130 relative to the second body 120 is the Y axis, asshown in the figures, it may be expected that, when the third body 130is pivoted relative to the first body 110 along with the second body120, the movement axial direction of the third body 130 relative to thesecond body 120 may also change correspondingly but it is constant thatthe movement axial direction may still enable the third body 130 to moveclose to or away from the rotating shaft 140.

Based on corresponding configurations of the related components, whenthe third body 130 rotates relative to the first body about the X axisalong with the second body 120, the driving members 150A and 150B mayalso move along the X axis while rotating, which may further move theguide columns along the guide slots R1 to R4 and further drive the thirdbody 130 to slide relative to the second body 120.

FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of the electronic device of FIG. 1A inanother state. FIG. 2B is the electronic device of FIG. 2A at anotherviewing angle. FIG. 2C is an exploded view of the electronic device ofFIG. 2A. Referring to FIG. 2A to FIG. 2C, the second body 120 is pivotedand unfolded relative to the first body 110 and the flexible display 160is in an unfolded (flattened) state in the same plane. In such a case,the first body 110, the second body 120, the third body 130 and thedriving members 150A and 150B are located on an opposite surface of adisplay surface of the flexible display 160.

Moreover, referring to FIG. 1B to FIG. 1D, in this embodiment, the thirdbody 130 has four guide slots R1 to R4 corresponding to multiple guidecolumns (riveting pieces P1 to P4 are matched with column bodies P5 toP8) on the pair of driving members 150A and 150B, and positions of theseguide slots R1 to R4 form mirror symmetry relative to a centreline ofthe third body 130 for correspondence to a movement mode of the drivingmembers 150A and 150B. As described above, the driving members 150A and150B move close to or away from each other in a process of rotating inthe same direction, so that, when the driving members 150A and 150B areswitched from a state shown in FIG. 1B to a state shown in FIG. 2A tomove close to each other, the third body 130 may be pushed out of thesecond body 120 by the driving members 150A and 150B along the Y axisdue to an arrangement trend of the guide slots R1 to R4, and the effectthat the third body 130 extends relative to the second body 120 isachieved.

Furthermore, by taking the guide slot R3 as an example, as describedabove, the guide column (formed by matching the column body P7 and theriveting piece P3) is movably coupled to the guide slot R3, that is, theguide column may move between two opposite end portions E1 and E2 of theguide slot R3. Here, the Y axis is considered as the movement axialdirection of the third body 130 relative to the second body 120, themovement axial direction is orthogonal to an axial direction (the Xaxis) of the rotating shaft 140, the guide slot R3 is inclined relativeto the Y axis, and an included angle T1 between the guide slot R3 andthe Y axis is shown in FIG. 1D. Therefore, the driving member 150B(considered as a component with the guide column) may move along the Xaxis to drive the third body 130 to move relative to the second body 120along the movement axial direction (the Y axis) due to a structuraladaptation relationship between the guide column and the guide slot R3.Switching of a state in FIG. 1A to FIG. 1D to a state in FIG. 2A to FIG.2C is equivalent to movement of the guide column from the end portion E1of the guide slot R3 to the end portion E2 of the guide slot R3, asshown in FIG. 2A.

Here, as shown in FIG. 1B, in the folded state, the driving members 150Aand 150B are kept at a distance d1, and a side edge, far away from therotating shaft 140, of the third body 130 is substantially aligned witha side edge, far away from the rotating shaft 140, of the second body120. Once being switched to the unfolded state in FIG. 2A, the drivingmembers 150A and 150B move close to and contact with each other, thedriving members 150A and 150B are further kept at distances d2 and d3relative to the second body 120 respectively, and thus it is apparentthat d1=d2+d3. Corresponding to FIG. 1D, since the guide slot (forexample, the guide slot R3) forms the included angle T1 relative to theY axis, an orthogonal projection size LX of a moving path of the guidecolumn from E1 to E2 on the X axis may be considered as a movingdistance of the driving member 150B along the X axis (the same movingdistance in the same direction also exists for the guide slot R4).Similarly, an orthogonal projection size LX of the guide slot R1 or R3on the X axis is considered as a moving distance of the driving member150A along the X axis. Moreover, for example, still for the guide slotR3, an orthogonal projection size LY thereof on the Y axis represents amoving-out distance of the third body 130 relative to the second body120, as shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B. In this embodiment, the drivingmembers 150A and 150B equally divides the distance d1, so that it isequivalent that d1=LX+LX, that is, d2=LX and d3=LX.

FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B are schematic diagrams of state switching of anexisting electronic device. Referring to FIG. 3A and FIG. 3Bsimultaneously, in the existing electronic device 200, a first body 210and a second body 220 are pivoted to be folded or unfolded via arotating shaft 240, and a flexible display 230 is disposed on the firstbody 210 and the second body 220. However, as shown in FIG. 3B, since afixed pivoting mode is adopted, the flexible display 230 may form abulge 231 shown in FIG. 3B due to a size difference caused by adifference in the folded state and the unfolded state, which isunfavourable for arrangement and operation of the flexible display 230and even may cause damage to it.

In view of this, as shown in FIG. 1A to FIG. 1D and FIG. 2A to FIG. 2C,in this embodiment, the third body 130 may locally move into or out ofthe second body 120 in a rotating process, namely overcoming theaforementioned size difference. That is, orthogonal projection sizes LYof the guide slots R1 to R4 on the Y axis in FIG. 1D, FIG. 2A and FIG.2B are the moving-out distance of the third body 130 relative to thesecond body 120 and, furthermore, equivalently overcome the sizedifference forming the bulge 231 of the flexible display 230 in FIG. 3B(namely the bulge 231 of the flexible display 230 in FIG. 3B may beflattened because the moving-out distance for additional extension ofthe third body 130 is equal to LY in this embodiment).

Referring to FIG. 1A, FIG. 1C, FIG. 2B and FIG. 2C, in this embodiment,the display surface of the flexible display 160 comprises a firstportion S1, a second portion S2 and a third portion S3. The firstportion S1 is disposed at the first body 110, the second portion S2 isdisposed at the second body 120, and the third portion S3 is abuttedbetween the first portion S1 and the second portion S2 and connectedwith no component to ensure smooth switching between the folded stateand the unfolded state. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B,the flexible display 230 may have the size difference between the foldedstate and the unfolded state, and thus, for the flexible display 160, abulge (for example, the aforementioned bulge 231) may be formed at thethird portion S3. Therefore, it is necessary to drive the third body 130to move out of the second body 120 to achieve an extension effect whenthe flexible display 160 is switched from the folded state to theunfolded state, which is equivalent to that the bulge 231 of theflexible display 230 is stretched to achieve a flattening effect shownin FIG. 2B on the unfolded flexible display 160.

FIG. 4A is an exploded view of an electronic device according to anotherembodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram ofpart of components of the electronic device of FIG. 4A after assembling.FIG. 4C illustrates the electronic device of FIG. 4B at another viewingangle, and FIG. 4C is a schematic diagram of the electronic device in anunfolded state different from a folded state shown in FIG. 4A and FIG.4B. It is also to be noted that a flexible display is omitted in thisembodiment to facilitate recognition of related components covered byit. Referring to FIG. 4A to FIG. 4C simultaneously, unlike a pair ofdriving members 150A and 150B configured to drive the third body 130 inthe aforementioned embodiment, a single driving member 350 is configuredto drive the third body 130 in this embodiment.

Furthermore, the electronic device of this embodiment includes a firstbody 110, a second body 320, a third body 130, a rotating shaft 340, adriving member 350 and a retaining member 360. The first body 110 andthe second body 320 are pivoted to each other via the rotating shaft340. The third body 130 is arranged at the second body 320 in a slidingmanner by matching of a guide portion 131 and a track 321. The drivingmember 350 has an internal thread 351 for adaptation to a first externalthread 341A and a second external thread 341B of the rotating shaft 340.It is to be noted that a spiral direction of the first external thread341A is the same as a spiral direction of the second external thread341B in this embodiment. Here, when the driving member 350 rotatesrelative to the first body 110 along with the second body 320, thedriving member 350 may move relative to the second body 320 along an Xaxis by matching of the thread structures. Moreover, the retainingmember 360 is disposed at the second body 320 for retaining duringmovement of the driving member 350.

As shown in FIG. 4B and FIG. 4C, in the folded state, the driving member350 is kept at a distance d4 relative to one side of the second body320, and when being switched to the unfolded state, the driving member350 moves along the X axis to be kept at a distance d5 relative to theother side of the second body 320 instead. Here, the distance d4 isequal to the distance d5.

Like the third body 130 of the aforementioned embodiment, the third body130 of this embodiment also has guide slots R5 and R6. Due to matchingwith only one driving member 350, the requirement that the drivingmember 350 drives the third body 130 to move out of or into the secondbody 320 may be met only via the guide slots R5 and R6 in the samedirection. In this embodiment, since a driving manner of the drivingmember 350 is similar to that in the aforementioned embodiment and it ismovably coupled to the guide slots R5 and R6 via guide columns P9 andP10 to achieve an effect the same as that in the aforementionedembodiment on the third body 130, elaborations are omitted.

Based on the above, according to the electronic device in theaforementioned embodiments of the present disclosure, the third body ismovably disposed at the second body and folded or unfolded relative tothe first body along with it, the driving member is movably disposed atthe rotating shaft, and meanwhile, the third body is located on themoving path of the driving member, so that, when the third body rotatesrelative to the first body to be folded or unfolded along with thesecond body, the third body may be driven by the driving member to moveaway from or close to the first body to generate relative extension andretraction movement between the first body and the third body. In such amanner, the flexible display disposed at the first body and the thirdbody may smoothly be switched between a folded state and an unfoldedstate along with the extension and retraction movement between thebodies, size differences, generated by state switching, of the flexibledisplay are avoided, and the problems of wrinkling and even separationof the flexible display are further solved.

The present disclosure has been disclosed above with the embodiments butis not limited thereto. Those of ordinary skill in the art may make somemodifications and embellishments without departing from the spirit andscope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of protection ofthe present disclosure should be defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic device, comprising: a first body; asecond body; a rotating shaft, connected with the first body and thesecond body, the first body and the second body rotating relatively tobe folded or unfolded via the rotating shaft; at least one drivingmember, movably pivoted to the rotating shaft; a third body, slidablycoupled to a rail of the second body, the driving member slidablycoupled to another rail of the third body, the third body being locatedon a moving path of the driving member, the third body and the drivingmember rotating relative to the first body to be folded or unfoldedalong with the second body, and the coupled third body, the second body,and the driving member rotating relative to the first body via therotating shaft; and a flexible display, disposed at the first body andthe third body, wherein the driving member drives the third body to moveclose to or away from the first body in a rotating folding or unfoldingprocess.
 2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein, whenthe third body rotates to the folded state relative to the first bodyalong with the second body, the third body, the driving member and thesecond body are accommodated in a recess of the first body, and part ofthe first body, the third body, the driving member and the second bodyare covered by the flexible display in the folded state; and when thethird body rotates to the unfolded state relative to the first bodyalong with the second body, the flexible display is unfolded into aplane, and the first body, the second body, the third body and thedriving member are located on an opposite surface of a display surfaceof the flexible display.
 3. The electronic device according to claim 1,wherein the rotating shaft comprises an external thread, the drivingmember comprises an internal thread, the external thread is adapted tothe internal thread, and the driving member, when rotating relative tothe rotating shaft, moves along an axial direction of the rotatingshaft.
 4. The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein the thirdbody comprises at least one guide slot or at least one guide column, thedriving member comprises at least one guide column or at least one guideslot, the guide column is movably coupled to the guide slot, the thirdbody moves relative to the second body along a movement axial direction,the guide slot is inclined relative to the movement axial direction, themovement axial direction is orthogonal to the axial direction of therotating shaft, and the driving member moves along the axial directionof the rotating shaft to drive the third body to move close to or awayfrom the first body along the movement axial direction.
 5. Theelectronic device according to claim 4, wherein the flexible displaycomprises a folded state and an unfolded state along with relativefolding and unfolding of the third body and the first body, a sizedifference exists for a size of the flexible display along the movementaxial direction between the folded state and the unfolded state, and thesize difference is equal to an orthogonal projection size of the guideslot in the movement axial direction.
 6. The electronic device accordingto claim 5, wherein the flexible display comprises a first portion, asecond portion and a third portion, the first portion is disposed at thefirst body, the second portion is disposed at the third body, the thirdportion is abutted between the first portion and the second portion, andthe size difference exists for the third portion between the foldedstate and the unfolded state.
 7. The electronic device according toclaim 1, wherein the rotating shaft comprises a first external threadand a second external thread, the electronic device comprises a firstdriving member and a second driving member, the first driving membercomprises a first internal thread, the second driving member comprises asecond internal thread, the first external thread is adapted to thefirst internal thread, the second external thread is adapted to thesecond internal thread, and the first driving member and the seconddriving member, when rotating relative to the rotating shaft, move closeto or away from each other along the axial direction of the rotatingshaft.
 8. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein the thirdbody comprises at least one pair of guide slots, the first drivingmember and the second driving member comprise at least one pair of guidecolumns respectively, the pair of guide columns is movably coupled tothe pair of guide slots, the third body moves relative to the secondbody along a movement axial direction, the pair of guide slots issymmetrically disposed relative to the movement axial direction, eachguide slot is inclined relative to the movement axial direction, themovement axial direction is orthogonal to the axial direction of therotating shaft, and the first driving member and the second drivingmember move along the axial direction of the rotating shaft to drive thethird body to move close to or away from the first body along themovement axial direction.
 9. The electronic device according to claim 7,wherein a spiral direction of the first external thread is opposite to aspiral direction of the second external thread.
 10. The electronicdevice according to claim 7, wherein the spiral direction of the firstexternal thread is the same as the spiral direction of the secondexternal thread.